Tobacco firms sue US over graphic cigarette labels

Five tobacco companies have launched legal action against the U.S. government over a new law that requires graphic health warnings to be printed on cigarette packets.

The new warnings – which include images of the sewn-up corpse of a smoker and diseased lungs – will be printed on cigarette packets from September 2012.

In a joint lawsuit, the firms are suing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), arguing the measure forces them to promote the government's anti-smoking message, therefore violating their constitutional right to free speech.

Agence France Presse said the labels would take up the top 50 percent of front and rear panels of cigarette packets sold in the U.S., as well as the top 20 percent of cigarette advertisements.

The FDA has not commented on the action, which RTT news reports was filed late Tuesday in an effort to delay the enforcement of the law.

The companies involved are RJ Reynolds Tobacco, Lorillard Tobacco, Commonwealth Brands, Liggett Group and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco.

In a media statement, Floyd Abrams, one of the lawyers representing the cigarette companies, said:

The government can require warnings which are straightforward and essentially uncontroversial, but they can't require a cigarette pack to serve as a mini-billboard for the government's anti-smoking campaign.

The lawsuit consists of a 41-page complaint, which argues the labels would make consumers "depressed, discouraged and afraid" to buy their products.